OPINION:
Sheriff David Clarke suddenly resigned his post as chief of Milwaukee County’s law enforcement, ostensibly to take a job within President Donald Trump’s administration.
And New York magazine promptly wrote a piece slamming him as a “fascist.”
Oh how the left loves a chance to hate.
Here’s the headline, in the Daily Intelligencer section: “Fascist Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke Resigns.”
The writer is talking about one of America’s staunchest law-and-order guys — a true protector of the people, defender of the Constitution, shiny example of good policing. And to the lawless-and-orderless left, that makes him a fascist.
The list of grievances against Clarke is long.
“Clarke referred to the Black Lives Matter movement as ’black slime,’ who were bound to ’join forces with ISIS’ — and ’needed to be crushed.’ He argued that when police confront anti-Trump protesters, they have a right ’to hit first.’ When it looked like Trump was going to lose the general election, Clarke tweeted, ’our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time.’ After Trump won, Clarke called on the commander-in-chief to round up the ’hundreds of thousands’ of Americans ’that are suspected’ of sympathizing with ISIS and ’hold them indefinitely under a suspension of habeas corpus [i.e. without trial],’ ” the New York mag piece stated.
OK, well and good. But take a second look at the list of complaints, and it’s evident that the big complaint about Clarke is over his rhetoric. He’s too tough-talking. He hurts people’s feelings. He’s offensive to some.
Well, there’s more: New York mag then cites previous reporting on a newborn baby dying during Milwaukee police custody; a prisoner dying of dehydration; a drunken driving offense affixed to an innocent victim who was hit by a deputy; an ethics investigation involving Clarke — all as proof positive of the sheriff’s fascist past.
Except, it’s not.
Those matters have been widely reported by the left to show Clarke’s unfitness to serve as sheriff. They’ve also been refuted and challenged by the sheriff’s department.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for example, wrote this in March: “Milwaukee County sheriff’s officials deny role in newborn’s jail death.”
The death of the inmate due to dehydration has led to a lawsuit by the family of the victim — a suit that names eight jail supervisors, 14 correctional officers, numerous jail-based medical professionals, the county and Clarke. In other words: anyone and everyone who might have played a part in the inmate’s dehydration death. But all that’s not the same as concluding Clarke was complicit or guilty.
Progressives, Democrats and those of left-leaning minds abhor Clarke — as they did and do Maricopa’s Joe Arpaio — because he’s tough-talking on crime and he puts the law first, and he’s not frightened to take on those who seek to subvert the law for political or personal purposes. That makes him hard to manipulate — and that makes him a natural enemy of the left.
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